As Maria Santiago Garcia checked in for her flight at the Salt Lake City International Airport, with five large suitcases in tow, the word “American” loomed above her in clean, bold letters.
It was just a brand, the airline she and her four children were using for their journey to Santiago Garcia’s native Guatemala.
But it was more than that: it was the reason she and her children were leaving. While they are American citizens, she is not. That designation made all the difference this Christmas.
While other children were opening presents, Santiago Garcia’s children — ages 11, 9, 5 and 3 — were saying goodbyes and packing their belongings to start their lives anew in a country they’d never seen before because their mother, who’d been in the U.